Updating your sponsorship packages with the times is critical to keep your supporters happy and your attendees engaged. Terri Toennies, CMP, founding board member, Association for Women in Events, and executive vice president and general manager of Los Angeles Auto Show, suggests three sponsorship ideas that will be strong for the coming year.
• Uber or Lyft rides. Both ride-sharing companies now allow event sponsors to create customizable ride passes.
• Anything healthy. Fitness classes, fun runs, and yoga break sare hot!
• Social media lounges with celebrity blogger appearances—or anything that helps get attendees to use the sponsors’ hashtags and generate buzz
Kelsey Dixon and Makenzie Davies, cofounders of davies + dixon, a branding and experiential marketing firm, agree that online influencers will take a bigger role in meetings and events in the coming year. Blogger endorsements, they say, have become more important for consumer brands than celebrity endorsements. How these influencers get integrated into events, in terms of promotions, onsite marketing, and special perks, they say, is similar to how we would have treated celebrities or entertainers in the past.
Organizations, they say, are making event attendance part of bloggers’ sponsorship plans in order to support brand-marketing efforts. The trend is strong in the fashion industry but at any event with high-profile product launches, planners should make rooms for these influential attendees in the year ahead.
